RELAY. A hundred years ago, in 2016, David Mackenzie directed Taylor Sheridan’s screenplay Hell or High Water. That story, set against and amongst the devastation wrought by the 2008 collapse of the criminally exploitative American mortgage securities racket, is about individual desperation in the face of remorseless corporate greed. It is also a thrilling heist/pursuit […]
John J. Bennett
Posted inArts + Scene
Night Always Comes
NIGHT ALWAYS COMES. Since 2007, Willy Vlautin has been publishing novels about the new American West, which means he specializes in stories about life at the end of empire, lives lived in the absence of opportunity and the presence of addiction, poverty and the occasional fleeting opportunity. The books draw a taut line between Reno […]
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Happy Again
HAPPY GILMORE 2. One of the many pitfalls inherent in what the movie-internet has queasily dubbed “legasequels” (we’ll plumb that odious cave another time), is that they must, by their very nature, provide fan-service while also reflecting, or at least acknowledging, the fact that time may have left those fans behind. At the very least, […]
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Cronenberg in The Shrouds
THE SHROUDS. It’s a fascinating thing, having spent the better part of a lifetime with the work of revered artists, to watch them age in the weird, liminal space of their output. In the past, they would often end up back at the bottom tier of an industry that no longer had a use for […]
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F1 and the Artful Blockbuster
F1: THE MOVIE. All (well, most) of my constant pearl-clutching, tooth-gnashing lamentation at the state of American cinema comes from a place of love. I’m a generational relic, but surely not alone in experiencing many of my transcendent moments and epiphanic revelations while knelt at the altar. This abiding affection is tempered by reticence and […]
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28 Years Later‘s Resurrection
28 YEARS LATER. When he’s really cooking — which is frequently — Danny Boyle can be one of the most engaging, adventurous directors in the business. Trainspotting (1996), only his second feature, changed the lives of a generation of us with its boundless energy, convention-shattering camerawork and an absolute banger of a soundtrack. Ever since, […]
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If It Ain’t Broke, Lean In
THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME. I always seem to preface discussions of Wes Anderson’s work with some sort of disclaimer or caveat. It’s as if I feel a need to justify — mostly to myself — my continuing fascination with his canon, and to acknowledge that, as a fan, I am still conflicted by some abiding, defining […]
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Friendship Gets Uncomfortable
FRIENDSHIP. For a certain, ardent segment of the population, the mere image of Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd — the former clad in a sort of schlubbier, tan on tan, Walter White winter ensemble, the latter sporting a handlebar mustache and 1980s elementary schoolboy fashion-goals jacket — is enough to provoke a giggling fit subsiding […]
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Mission‘s Accomplishments
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING. It took me until the previous Reckoning to realize that, among its many other fine and compelling attributes, one of the great successes of the Mission: Impossible franchise, at least in its late-stage iterations, lies in its simultaneous fealty to its origins — cinematic, not so much the television […]
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Warfare is No Recruitment Film
WARFARE. Of the weekend’s offerings, Thunderbolts* is loudly being touted as a return to form for the MCU. It’s no secret that I don’t particularly care for the form, and despite the cast and crew of this latest noisemaker seeming more interesting and varied than the usual, I just couldn’t — or didn’t, if we’re […]
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Bloody Havoc
HAVOC. The most linear, lowest resistance path to Gareth Evans’ latest is most likely an accidental one. Dropped unceremoniously onto Netflix, where algorithmic manipulation, more than fandom or genuine interest, is intended to steer traffic its way, Havoc would hardly seem positioned for lasting — even fleeting, viral — success. Casual Tom Hardy fans might […]
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Original Sinners
SINNERS. To turn any original movie into a hit these days is a dicey proposition at best, given the fearfulness and uncertainty of the industry (as it once was and perhaps never again shall be), let alone the ambivalence of an audience hamstrung by distractions, paranoia and the omni-present spectre of intellectual property as guiding […]